Making Appropriate New Choices Through Unconscious Thought Based on New Goals

Abstract

This research examines whether appropriate choices can be made based on a new goal through unconscious thought. The experimental materials are four mobile phones, one suitable for older adults and the other for younger people. The results of Experiment 1 show that when the goal was changed from judging whether a mobile phone is suitable for older adults to judging whether it is suitable for younger people, the scores of the participants in the unconscious thought group—that mobile phones are objectively suitable for older adults—were significantly higher than those for the group which thought that mobile phones are objectively suitable for young people. In Experiment 2, the immediate decision-making group was added, which ruled out the possibility that the participants had already made a choice during the information presentation process. The results of this study show that unconscious thought can make appropriate new choices based on new goals.